Washington (CNN) - Under fire for seeking records of journalists' communications, government officials pushed back Wednesday against statements from Fox News that it was not notified about government subpoenas to the organization.

On Wednesday a law enforcement official showed CNN paperwork to support Justice's claim that on August 27, 2010 three messages were sent out about the subpoenas and went to both a lawyer for Fox News' parent company, News Corporation, and reporter James Rosen.
The Justice Department subpoenas were for two days of phone records in 2009 during a national security leak investigation. The department said it notified Fox News about seeking toll records for five phone lines but did not tell them about seeking access to Rosen's personal email traffic. When news of the search warrant became public, Fox News released a statement acknowledging Rosen was the reporter described in the affidavit and expressing outrage.

The official said two notifications were sent to Lawrence Jacobs who was the senior counsel for News Corporation. The law enforcement official showed CNN a fax receipt with a time stamp to show something was faxed to Jacobs at precisely 4:09 pm on August 27. In addition, CNN was shown a U.S. Postal Service certified mail receipt indicating a registered letter was sent to Jacobs the same day. The official did not show the messages sent to Jacobs.

CNN was also shown an email to the Fox News reporter sent at 4:20p on August 27th. The reporter's name was blacked out but the official acknowledged it was sent to Rosen. The reporter also was copied on the letter sent to Jacobs. Again, CNN was not shown what message was sent.

The law enforcement official stated that there was no indication that any of the messages did not go through. But the official also did not provide any further proof that the intended parties actually received the communications.

"Nobody has bothered to show me anything," Jacobs told CNN Wednesday. "I am not suggesting anybody is lying. But I have no recollection of anyone receiving anything....Why would I sit on it?"

Jacobs left News Corp in in June 2011 but said he's been in contact with his old company and officials there have said they have searched records and found no messages from Justice Department officials about seeking phone records.

CNN has reached out to Fox for comment on the newly disclosed documents. In the past, Fox has said they were not notified about subpoenas for phone records.

The Justice Department was seeking the information as part of an investigation into who allegedly leaked a classified report on North Korea to Fox in 2009. Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, who was working at the State Department at the time, was later charged with unlawful disclosure of national defense information, a violation of the Espionage Act. He has not gone to trial yet but has pleaded not guilty. Rosen was not charged with a crime.

A second law enforcement official told CNN Tuesday that three notifications had been sent about seeking the phone records. The official stressed the request was limited to toll records and would only show what calls were made from five Fox phone numbers and who called into those numbers.

Earlier this month an affidavit became public showing the government sought e-mail communications between Kim and Rosen. The affidavit suggested the reporter might have broken laws. Rosen's name was not given in the documents, which is common when someone is not charged in a case.

soundoff(444 Responses)

JON WYATT

FOX is untruthful ??? NO WAY !!!! LOL!

May 30, 2013 07:37 am at 7:37 am |

bill.x

Fox and Wikileaks, perfect together. Fox schemes and lies about their news sources no matter if it puts our men and women in danger – ruining all the intelligence work and cost that it takes to keep up with Al Qaeda. It's just about money – selling advertising space for News Corp/Fox News. They compromise their country's security at the drop of a hat..

May 30, 2013 07:38 am at 7:38 am |

Willie12345

And I should believe the DOJ because ............. ?

May 30, 2013 07:42 am at 7:42 am |

Robert

Fabricated emails from Holder no doubt.

May 30, 2013 07:42 am at 7:42 am |

Kc from fl

Again, why does this matter to the larger question of the government's assau't on press freedom, especially conservative press freedom. Just what is CNN's problem?

May 30, 2013 07:43 am at 7:43 am |

John

The Department of Injustice.

May 30, 2013 07:44 am at 7:44 am |

Taroya

Poor Faux.
When was it that they were discovered tapping phone in Britian? And now they are claiming ignorance.
Methinks they do protest too much.

May 30, 2013 07:46 am at 7:46 am |

sara katz

I am pleased to see that CNN is covering this story instead of covering for Obama this time. Though Holder's job is to keep Obama safe from prosecution for all the shady things he has done, I think maybe this time he really overstepped. I have never seen a president personally go after a network the way that he has Fox News. It's unseemly and petty for a president who is embarrassingly thin skinned and yet he enjoys the most friendly, admiring press ever. Any other president would have been called on the carpet for the failed stimulus and disappearance of the money. The failed green companies, bailed out car factories moving to China and the underhanded way the payback on those loans were handled, the cover ups on nearly everything he does to whitewash the disastrous administration's policies and lack of supervision once implemented such as pumping money into the stock market. It's a mess and the media has NOT been doing it's job. Now we see that they are doing their best to demonize, undermine Fox. DO YOUR JOB. Your loyalty is not to the WH it is to the people. So far everything this president has done has failed and is a disaster the next person to come in office will have a terrible time because it will all be hitting the fan about the time this dishonest, under qualified, incompetent man and his administration leave office. So thank you to CNN for covering this, I really want you to succeed.

I think it's time to fly our flag upside down, because this nation is truly under duress.

May 30, 2013 07:48 am at 7:48 am |

Danita

Now the justice system is trusting to send emails and not certified mail? You have got to be kidding me.

May 30, 2013 07:48 am at 7:48 am |

levi

FOX News lied? This needs to be investigated by Mr. Issa. I think I smell a scandal!

May 30, 2013 07:50 am at 7:50 am |

Brad Irvin

Considering the totality of this administration's behavior, I would say that the burden of proof rest with them. In other words, "They showed you a few pieces of paper, and you believed them?!

May 30, 2013 07:59 am at 7:59 am |

sbuler

assume anything FOX says is a lie

May 30, 2013 08:03 am at 8:03 am |

joe dokes

When a "news" agency like Fox lies every day to its viewership, it's becomes difficult for them to distinguish between truth and fiction.

May 30, 2013 08:09 am at 8:09 am |

DemsRdim

Riiiiiiiiiiight, sure you did. Can't fake THOSE things can you? You can fool some of the people some of the same, and you can fool most of the people some of the time but you can fool oblamer people ALL of the time! That's because they are brain DEAD just like their pal Joe. You know Joe right? Joe Biden ie those three little letters JOBS Joe?

May 30, 2013 08:12 am at 8:12 am |

GotRocks

"The law enforcement official showed CNN a fax receipt with a time stamp to show something was faxed to Jacobs at precisely 4:09 pm on August 27."

ANYONE can rig the date on a fax machine to say anything. This proves nothing...but since they're in it so deep now, they have nothing to lose.

May 30, 2013 08:19 am at 8:19 am |

KAS

One of the more hilarious attempts by the Fox tabloid to deny they never received the subpoena notifications was when one of the talking heads stated, "Faxes are unreliable and emails, who knows where they go."

Now let the hypocrisy begin from the defenders of the tabloid claiming it's a vendetta, the media is out to get the tabloid and all the other excuses for why Fox wasn't caught in another outright lie.

May 30, 2013 08:24 am at 8:24 am |

Matthew

Falsehoods at Fox News? Color me shocked.

May 30, 2013 08:26 am at 8:26 am |

Stan Levenson

What a sad state of affairs this country has become. In order to be successful you have to lie, cheat be corrupt. (check spelling). Our fore fathers who wrote the contitution are turning over in their graves. What has happen to to tellling the truth, and not trying to destroy other humans. What a terrbile message we are sending to the next generation; Making money is the direct cause of all this human behaviour. WHAT A SHAME THE USA USED TO BE SUCH A PROUD COUNTRY. US YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELF.

May 30, 2013 08:27 am at 8:27 am |

joev

This pathetic Administration is both laughable as well as criminal in it's wanton abuse of the rights of American citizens.

That they would attempt so pathetic an effort to cover their sorry butts simply shows the low regard with which they hold the public.

A fax polling doc with a time stamp can be manufactured in about 30 seconds and any fool can make up a postal receipt with a computer and a printer.

Why, WHY won't they show us the actual documents they claimed to have sent FNC?

May 30, 2013 08:28 am at 8:28 am |

afitgrad86

So if the DOJ is willing to produce email and fax receipts but did not show the content of the correspondence how do we know what was communicated? It could have been a recipe for chip dip for all we know.

May 30, 2013 08:30 am at 8:30 am |

jim

Telling the WHOLE truth wouldn't be "fair and balanced" for Faus News.

May 30, 2013 08:30 am at 8:30 am |

Mark

Figures. It's pretty sad when a news organization conducts themselves with the integrity of a Super Pac.

May 30, 2013 08:30 am at 8:30 am |

Tim

Yet ANOTHER example of why we can't trust anything Fox News says, or reports. ("Faux" IS the correct term for them.)

May 30, 2013 08:34 am at 8:34 am |

roger

The recipient's name was blocked out but they said it was to Rosen. With them blocking the name out I'm prone to calling them liars. What reason would you have to block out the name if in fact it was sent to that name and you were saying it was sent to Rosen. Fishy?